Unpacking Police Endorsement of Myths Surrounding Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Formation and Implications.

Drawing on a qualitative case study consisting of interviews with Danish police trainees, patrol officers, and police detectives, this article explores police endorsement of myths surrounding male-perpetrated intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) and its influence on police response to IPVAW incidents. The findings show that police officers begin to believe in the myths to cope with negative emotions arising from repeated exposure to IPVAW victims, who do not behave according to expected norms of being cooperative, responsible, and innocent. This makes police officers meet victims with skepticism, low spirit, and hopelessness, making them refrain from initiating further criminal investigations, opening criminal cases, and pursuing arrests.

Cross-sector problems of collaboration in psychiatry.

INTRODUCTION: Some mental health service users need support from both hospital-based and community-based services. Treatment requires well-functioning collaboration practices between different mental health organizations and professions. However, serious cross-sector problems of collaboration have existed in Danish psychiatry since the 1980s when mental health service provisions were split into two psychiatric systems. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We report from two qualitative studies: STUDY#1 (n = 24) consisted of twenty-four individual, qualitative interviews with the staff and management of a psychiatric emergency unit, a closed psychiatric ward, and a community-based residential facility, respectively. STUDY#2 (n = 22) consisted of four individual interviews with service users and mental health staff, and three focus group interviews each including six staff members from both hospital- and community-based services. RESULTS: Staff and management experiencing cross-sector problems of collaboration point to ineffective coordination of services between systems and lack of mutual understanding of how systems other than the staffs' own systems work. Solutions include specific procedural changes during service users' admission to and discharge from hospital and during hospitalization and measures to increase cross-sector knowledge about each system's practices and methods. CONCLUSION: Improvement of cross-sector collaboration in psychiatry should take the form of a multi-faceted approach embracing measures to improve coordination of service users' treatment and care and to increase interaction, understanding and respect between the two systems. FUNDING: not relevant. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.